Chapter 361

Chapter 361

No sooner had the old orc’s order fallen than the Dark Elves and orcs began moving.

They ignored the valuable Queen Ironclad Ant’s corpse and busily collected only the eggs embedded in the walls.

THUD!

The old orc struck the ground hard with his bone spear and said,

“Chwit! Hurry. Soon the Ironclad Ants will eat all the humans and return. We must get out before then.”

“Chwit! Got it.”

The orcs answered and moved busily.

Unlike the orcs, who noisily chatted as they collected the eggs, the Dark Elves moved silently without saying a word.

Seeing that, Zeon muttered in a low voice,

“Well, I’ve seen everything now. Elves obeying an orc.”

“Chwit! Who’s there?”

Zeon had thought he was muttering quietly, but the old orc heard him and shouted.

Since he had no intention of hiding anyway, Zeon stepped out into the underground cavity.

At his appearance, the orcs and Dark Elves gripped their weapons and took up a guarded stance.

“Chwit! It’s a human.”

“How is a human here? Wasn’t he supposed to be under attack by the Ironclad Ants?”

The eyes of the orcs and Dark Elves staring at Zeon were filled with hostility.

Zeon had received gazes like this quite often, so his expression did not change at all. He remained calm.

“So you were the ones who lured the Ironclad Ants with the Flame Armadillos. Did you learn that by watching us hunt?”

Zeon’s gaze was fixed on the old orc at the center of the group.

The old orc’s wrinkled face twisted unpleasantly.

“Chwit! That’s right, human! Good things should be learned and shared, shouldn’t they?”

“Hmm! Your vocabulary is quite good. Does an orc’s tongue get sharper if he lives long enough?”

Zeon looked genuinely impressed. At that, the old orc’s face twisted even more.

“Are you mocking me, human?”

“I was truly impressed. But if that’s how it felt, I’m sorry.”

At Zeon’s answer, delivered with an expression that did not look sorry in the slightest, the old orc grew even more enraged.

“Human, do you wish to die?”

“No! I’d rather not die.”

“Where are the other humans?”

“At the campsite.”

“Then you came alone?”

The old orc’s eyes flashed dangerously.

Zeon was not so foolish that he did not understand what that meant.

He raised both hands and said,

“Whoa, calm down. I don’t want to resort to violence when we have such a fine tool as conversation.”

“Do you think I would speak with a mere human?”

“That sounds like a serious species-discrimination remark.”

“Shut up, inferior race.”

“Mm! To think I’d hear an orc call me an inferior race. That’s shocking.”

Zeon scratched his head.

He had experienced countless things, but this was his first time being verbally abused by an orc right to his face.

Even at that moment, the old orc’s abuse continued.

“Humans are trash. Waste that cannot even be recycled. The masters of this land are not humans, but us orcs.”

“Interesting. Where did you pick up a word like ‘recycled’? It’s not something orcs would normally use.”

“Chwit! What an irritating human. You black-skinned bastards, kill him.”

Unable to restrain his anger at Zeon’s provocation, the old orc gave the Dark Elves an order.

The Dark Elves put down the Ironclad Ant eggs they were holding and approached Zeon.

In their hands were cold weapons such as shamshirs and rapiers.

The Dark Elves immediately attacked Zeon.

SWISH!

SHWIP!

The shamshirs and rapiers drove toward Zeon’s vital points with terrifying speed.

Zeon used Sand Walk and avoided their attacks.

‘They don’t seem drugged, and their reason looks intact. But why are Dark Elves obeying an orc’s orders? Could they be under a restriction spell?’

The Dark Elves Zeon knew possessed pride as lofty as High Elves.

They thought themselves superior to ordinary elves and considered orcs as worthless as the grime between their toes.

Yet those same Dark Elves were faithfully following the old orc’s orders.

It was a sight Zeon’s common sense could not understand.

The movements of the Dark Elves attacking him were anything but ordinary.

They were stealthy and swift.

Before he could even fully sense their presence, a rapier thrust toward his eye, and a shamshir slipped toward his groin.

Zeon dodged by the narrowest of margins.

The Dark Elves threw themselves after him.

Dark Elves were born assassins.

Their movements were as fast as swallows and as silent as owls.

If he let his guard down even for a moment, he felt a sense of danger that their sharp blades would pierce his lungs without mercy.

Zeon either evaded the Dark Elves’ attacks or deflected them with the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat.

Then one of the Dark Elves spoke for the first time.

“Die! Only if you die can we live.”

“So the old orc does have some weakness of yours in his grasp.”

“Shut up.”

The Dark Elf shouted and swung his shamshir.

A red aura shimmered over his shamshir.

It was Aura Blade.

SLASH!

The wall behind Zeon was cut apart as easily as a radish.

If he had failed to dodge, he would have been split in two like that wall.

It was a rather chilling attack.

If Zeon had been an ordinary martial artist, he would have shrunk back from that attack. But Zeon was neither an ordinary martial artist nor an ordinary Awakened.

SHWIP!

When Zeon flicked his finger, the sand on the ground clumped together and flew.

It was Sand Blaster.

Dozens of streaks of Sand Blaster hammered the bodies of the Dark Elves attacking Zeon with terrifying force.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—!

With explosive roars, sand grains ricocheted in every direction.

Some Dark Elves cut down Sand Blaster with their shamshirs, some intercepted it with magic, and others dodged.

Their reaction speed was truly astonishing. But Zeon’s reaction speed was far faster than theirs.

BOOM—!

The sand grains swirling around Zeon’s entire body exploded all at once.

It was Claymore.

“Guh!”

“Kuh!”

The Dark Elves caught in the explosion screamed and were blown in every direction.

They had never imagined that the sand grains would explode. Naturally, they were given no time to defend themselves.

The Dark Elves crashed here and there, groaning. But only one remained unharmed.

It was the Dark Elf who used Aura Blade.

With his turban wrapped around his entire face, he swung Aura Blade with all his strength.

Zeon raised a wall of sand.

Even so, it only stopped Aura Blade for about 0.1 seconds. Aura Blade soon cut fiercely through the sand wall and flew toward Zeon. But for Zeon, that was enough.

“Fire Rain!”

Rain of fire poured down, filling the underground cavity.

The rain of fire, mixed with blue flame and pure white flame, focused on the Dark Elf swinging Aura Blade.

In that instant, a light of despair rose in the Dark Elf’s eyes.

Instinctively, he realized he could not block Zeon’s attack. Even so, he had no intention of giving up resistance.

“Hyaaa!”

The Dark Elf swung Aura Blade with all his might.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The rain of fire pouring down on him burst like fireworks. Countless drops of fire became sparks and vanished against the blade he swung.

A curtain made of Aura Blade formed before him. But even a shield made of aura could not block the enormous number of falling flames.

One drop of fire slipped through a minute gap and struck the Dark Elf directly. Its power was horrifying.

BOOM—!

“Kyaaak!”

An explosive roar and a scream rang out at the same time.

The Dark Elf who had been swinging Aura Blade was blown backward and slammed into the wall.

The impact loosened the turban wrapped around the Dark Elf’s face, revealing her true appearance.

“A woman.”

The Dark Elf, unconscious and bleeding, was a beautiful woman who called to mind a black pearl. But the fact that the Dark Elf was a woman was not important to Zeon.

What mattered was that while he was dealing with the Dark Elves, the orc group had disappeared.

After making the Dark Elves deal with Zeon, they had leisurely escaped with the Ironclad Ant eggs.

“Tsk! That cruelty rivals a human’s.”

Zeon shook his head at the old orc’s cunning.

He had dealt with quite a few orcs, but this was the first time he had encountered one this quick-witted and capable of using another race.

The strongest orc Zeon had ever met was the Orc Great Chieftain Orca.

Orca was an orc who worshiped strength.

In truth, most orcs had tendencies similar to Orca’s. But even among orcs, oddities were bound to be born.

The priest who had been Orca’s close aide had been one, and the old orc he had met this time was another.

These cunning old orcs were harder to deal with than young and powerful orcs who relied only on strength.

At that moment, the female Dark Elf who had briefly lost consciousness came to.

“Did we...... lose? Damn it!”

She must have been terribly frustrated, because tears fell from her eyes.

“Captain!”

“Are you all right?”

The other elves who had regained consciousness rushed over to the female Dark Elf.

Fortunately, Zeon had controlled the power of his Skill, so all of them had only suffered light injuries.

But the mental damage they had received was by no means small.

They had never imagined they would be defeated this miserably by a human, so the shock they felt was enormous.

Zeon approached the Dark Elves. Then the Dark Elves huddled tightly around the woman and tried to protect her.

Zeon stopped right in front of them and asked,

“Why did you take the Ironclad Ant eggs?”

“Urgh! Because of you, our entire clan is going to die.”

The female Dark Elf glared at Zeon as if she wanted to kill him.

At those unexpected words, Zeon’s brow furrowed slightly.

“What do you mean?”

“If we don’t return, Chuangka, that old orc, will kill our entire clan.”

“That old orc’s name is Chuangka? Is Chuangka holding your families hostage?”

“That is...... urgh!”

Suddenly, the female Dark Elf clutched her chest and groaned. The same happened to the other Dark Elves.

“Haaah!”

“Kgh!”

All of them clutched their chests or throats, gagging as if they were about to stop breathing.

Zeon frowned as he watched the Dark Elves roll on the ground in agony.

“This has become troublesome.”

Zeon did not know exactly what was tormenting them.

He could only guess that it had something to do with the old orc named Chuangka.

At that moment—

Kieee!

The shriek of Ironclad Ants rang out from outside.

The Ironclad Ants, having realized that their queen was dead, were returning to the fissure at insane speed.

If he left these Dark Elves here, they would surely end up as a meal for the enraged Ironclad Ants.

“It can’t be helped.”

Zeon moved the sand and lifted the Dark Elves’ bodies.

Taking the Dark Elves, who floated gently in midair, Zeon hurriedly left the Ironclad Ant burrow.

RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE!

He saw countless ants climbing down the walls of the fissure.

Had he been even a little later, they would have been trapped inside the ant burrow.

Zeon sighed in relief and rose into the air.

The Ironclad Ants grew furious at the sight of Zeon leaving the fissure with the Dark Elves. But Ironclad Ants crawling on the ground could do nothing to Zeon and the Dark Elves in the air.

Leaving behind the enraged screams of the Ironclad Ants, Zeon escaped the fissure.

Zeon floated in the air and looked around.

Chuangka and the orcs had already vanished and were nowhere to be seen.

“The old orc is quick on his feet too. What the hell is he plotting?”

He had a bad feeling.

To learn the truth, he had to save the Dark Elves first.

Zeon knew someone who could save them.

“If it’s Briel, she’ll be able to figure out why the Dark Elves ended up like this.”

With the Dark Elves trailing behind him like a tail, Zeon flew through the air.